Apparatus for forming a stationary yarn package



Feb. 20, 1968 E. H. SHATT'UCK ETAL} 3,369,280

APPARATUS FOR FORMING A SIATIONARY YARN PACKAGE Filed March 14, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 14 will Why mm INVENTORS 7 EWART H; 'SHATTUCK BY CHARLES R CABELLO ATTORNEY Feb. 20,1968 E. H. SHATTUCZK ETAL 3,369,280

APPARATUS FOR FORMING A STATIONARY YARN PACKAGE Filed March 14, 1966 3 SheetsSheet 2 3 INVENTORS EWART H. SHATTUCK CHARLES R CABELLO ATTOIRNEY Feb. 20, 1968 E. H- SHATTUCK ETAL 3,369,280

APPARATUS FOR FORMING A STATIONARY YARN PACKAGE Filed March 14, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 3

INVENTORS EWART H. SHATTUCK ATTbRNEY CHARLES R. CABELLO United States Patent 3,369,280 APPARATUS FOR FORMING A STATIONARY YARN PACKAGE Ewart H. Shattuck and Charles R. Cabello, Wilmington,

DeL, assignors to Bancroft, Joseph & Sons Co., Rockford, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 14, 1966, Ser. No. 534,122 9 Claims. (Cl. 2821) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for forming a yarn into a ribbon of loops and laying the loops in a helical layer onto the bottom of a stationary yarn package. The loop former is mounted on a turntable which rotates beneath the stationary yarn package.

This invention relates to apparatus for packaging yarn and more particularly to an apparatus of the above type wherein the yarn package remains stationary as it is formed.

An object is to provide novel and improved apparatus of the type above indicated.

Another object is to provide apparatus for laying a ribbon of yarn onto a stationary package in the form of successive helical layers.

A further object is to form a package of the above type wherein the yarn ribbon is composed of a series of yarn loops.

A further object is to provide a packaging machine by which the package is formed while in a non-rotating state so that it can be readily removed from the apparatus without interrupting the packaging operation.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully disclosed.

The nature of the invention will be better understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which a specific embodiment has been set forth for purposes of illustration.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the apparatus with parts broken away for clarity;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical section taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1 illustrating the feed of the formed loops from the ball onto the helical plate; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 1 showing the mounting of the package center post.

Referring to the drawings more in detail the apparatus is shown as comprising a turntable carrying the packaging apparatus and mounted for rotation on rollers 11 riding on an annular shoulder 12 in the under-surface of the turntable. Each roller 11 is rotatably mounted in a bracket 13 which is adjustably mounted by bolts 14 on a fixed bracket 15 carried by a supporting pedestal 16.

The turntable 10 is fixed to an outer sleeve which is journalled in a bearing 21 carried in a pillow block 22. The sleeve 20 carries at its lower end a gear 23 driven by a gear belt 24 from a gear 25 on the output of a variable speed drive 26 connected to be driven by a motor 27. The turntable 10 is thus driven at a predetermined, controlled rate by suitable adjustment of the variable speed drive 26.

An inner sleeve 30 is disposed within the sleeve 20 with its lower end extending below the lower end of the outer sleeve 20 and secured by a collar 31 and with its upper end extending above the turntable 10 and carrying a sun ear 32. A pin 33 fixed to the lower end of the inner sleeve 30 is secured to a bracket 34 for holding the inner sleeve 30 against rotation so that the sun gear 33 remains fixed and non-rotating.

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A central tube 35 is disposed within the inner sleeve 30 and is rotatable therein. The tube 35 carries at its lower end a gear 36 which is driven by a gear belt 37 from a gear belt pulley 37a on the output of a variable speed drive 39 connected to be driven by motor 3-8. The tube 35 carries at its upper end a belt pulley 40 for driving the apparatus to be described. Thus the rate of rotation of the pulley 40 can be adjusted by means of the variable speed drive 39. Flared collars 41 and 42 are mounted at both ends to facilitate the passage of the yarn 44 therethrough from a supply cop or the like not shown.

A fixed yarn guide tube may be disposed within the tube 35 through which the yarn 44 may be fed so as to prevent the yarn from contacting the tube 35 and being twisted thereby.

Turntable 10 carries a bracket 54 which in turn carries a bracket 54a with a' sleeve 5417, a helical plate is mounted on a pin 50a adjustably secured in sleeve 54b for vertical movement thereof. Bracket 54:: is mounted on bracket 54 in such a manner that helical plate 50, carried thereby, can be shifted around the axis of hub 80 described in more detail below. Helical plate 50 has a leading edge 51 and a trailing edge 52 in the direction of rotation of the turntable. Said leading edge 51 and that part of the under surface of the section of the helical plate that lies immediately above it form an opening 53 therebetween into which the ribbon of yarn is to be introduced.

A ball 55, mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis on a bracket 56 is positioned on the turntable 10 with its lower surface in proximity to the leading edge 51 of the plate 50. The bracket 56 is adjustably mounted on the turntable so that the horizontal axis of the ball can be shifted about its vertical center axis, i.e., angularly with respect to the radius of the turnable as desired. The ball '55 is driven by an O-belt 57 riding in a groove 58 in the surface of the ball. The O-belt in turn is driven by a pulley 59 mounted on a bracket 60 carried by the turntable 10. The pulley 59 is attached to a shaft 43 which, in turn, carries another pulley 61 driven by a belt 62 from a pulley 63 mounted on another shaft 43 journalle'd in the bracket 60 and fixed to a pulley 64 which is driven by a belt 65 from the pulley 40 on the tube 35. Thus the ball 55 is driven by the motor 38 through the coupling means above described at a rate controlled by the variable speed drive mechanism 39.

A cone is mounted for rotation on a bracket 71 carried by the turntable 10 with its open end 72 disposed over a substantial portion of the ball 55. The cone carries a yarn guide 73 at its open end through which the yarn passes as it is wrapped around the ball by the rotation of the cone. The cone 70 is driven by a belt 74 from a motor 76 which is also mounted on the bracket 71. The electric circuit for the motor 76 includes a pair of slip rings 77 mounted on the outer sleeve 20 and fixed brushes carried by a bracket not shown.

The helical plate 50 carries an upwardly extending hub 80 having a bore 81 in which a shaft 82 is journalled by bearings 83. The shaft 82 extends below the plate 50 and carries at its lower end a gear 84. A pair of gears 85 and 86 mounted on a common shaft 87 mesh respectively with the gear 84 and with the sun gear 32. The shaft 87 is journalled in a bracket 88 carried by the turntable 10. The ratios of the gears 32, 84, 85 and 86 are such that the gear 84 and the shaft 82 do not rotate but remain fixed like the stationary inner sleeve 30.

A sleeve which is to extend through the center of the yarn package is removably mounted on the shaft 82 by means of a collar 96 that is fixed to the upper end of shaft 82 by a set screw 97. The collar 96 is threaded to receive a threaded plug member 98 mounted in the lower end of sleeve 95. An outer stationary wall 99 mounted on fixed brackets 100 surrounds the lower portion of the sleeve 95 to extend around the outer perihery of the yarn package to prevent the package from tending to rotate with the helical plate. The sleeve 95 and the walls 99 register with the inner and outer peripheries respectively of the helical plate 50 to form an annulus in which the package is to be built up.

In the operation of this apparatus the yarn 44 is fed upwardly through the inner bore of the center tube 35 and axially into the bore of the cone 70 which rotates at a relatively high rate of speed to wrap the yarn in successive loops 101 around the surface of the ball 55. The ball is rotated by the belt and pulley arrangement above described at a much slower rate than the cone 70 so that the loops 101 are fed downwardly to form a ribbon of overlapped loops 102 which is stripped from the ball by the belt 57 and deposited on the leading edge 51 of the helical plate 50 which rotates with the turntable for drawing the ribbon of loops through the opening 53 and placing it against the underside of the package 103.

The package, thus remains stationary as it is being built up by each succeeding helical layer of yarn loops while the turntable and helical plate rotate. The package can thus be removed without interrupting the operation of the apparatus; that is to say, sections of the formed package can be removed While succeeding helical layers of loops are continuously being formed at the lower end of the package.

While a ball type loop and ribbon forming device has been shown as mounted on the turntable for feeding the ribbon loops onto the helical plate, obviously other loop forming devices may be used such as a rotating fiinger in the form of a rotating tube through which the yarn advances as described for example in Patent No. 3,234,627 dated Feb. 15, 1966 Dye Package (T45), or a forming cylinder around which the loops are laid by a rotating head as shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 366,576 filed May 11, 1964 Apparatus for Packaging Yarn (T54).

While the apparatus has been described as used for packaging yarn it is to be understood that it may be useful for packaging other yarn-like materials such as fibers or continuous filaments or material which is capable of being extruded or spun or otherwise sufficiently pliable to be formed into loops including natural or synthetic fibers or filaments or food products such as extruded or spun cereals or products which may be made into strip form such as noodles or the like.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for forming a package of yarn like material composed of a plurality of successive helical layers of a ribbon of said material comprising means supporting said package in a non-rotating state, means forming the material into a ribbon and means rotating beneath said package to lay said hibbon in successive convolutions onto the under-surface of said package and to cause said package to advance upwardly as the layers build up there- 2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which the means supporting said package comprises a helical plate mounted to rotate under said package and having an opening through which said ribbon is laid onto said package.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 in which a turntable carries said plate and means for forming said ribbon is mounted on said turntable.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 in which said ribbon forming means comprises a ball mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis, means wrapping said material about the surface of said ball in the form of loops, means rotating said ball to advance said loops in the form of a ribbon, means stripping said ribbon from the surface of said ball, and means introducing said ribbon into said opening.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 in which said turntable is mounted on an outer sleeve having driving means and at least one of the moving parts of said ribbon forming is driven by a tube journalled within said sleeve and independent means is provided for driving said tube.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 in which a motor is mounted on said turntable to supply the power to drive at least one of the moving parts of said ribbon forming means.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 in which a central post extends upwardly through the center of said package, means mounting said post on said plate for relative rotation, a fixed inner sleeve within said outer sleeve carrying a sun gear above said turntable, and a gear train rotating with said turntable into connecting said sun gear and said post and adapted to hold said post fixed against rotation.

8. Apparatus for forming a package of yarn-like material composed of a plurality of successive helical layers of said material comprising means supporting said package in a non-rotating state and means rotating beneath said package to lay said material in successive convolutions onto the under-surface of said package.

9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 8 including means to advance said package upwardly as the layers build up thereon.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,120,689 2/1964 Drummond 28l 3,l72,l 3/1965 Langway et al. 2821 X LOUIS K. RlMRODT, Primary Examiner. 

